


birds sing in the mourning

by coruscantguard (nadiavandyne), nadiavandyne



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Republic (Comics), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Massacre, Pong Krell is his own warning, Unreliable Narrator, War Crimes, even though he's already dead in this fic, okay this one is seriously fucked up yall not gonna lie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:42:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28905807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiavandyne/pseuds/coruscantguard, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiavandyne/pseuds/nadiavandyne
Summary: General Pong Krell is dead. Quinlan Vos assesses the damage.
Relationships: Faie & Quinlan Vos
Comments: 13
Kudos: 58





	birds sing in the mourning

**Author's Note:**

> When you let assassins, bounty hunters, and mercenaries raise children to kill, and teach them to follow all orders without hesitation, no matter how immoral those orders may be, it's only a matter of time before innocents die. (If the clones committing war crimes is a deal breaker, this probably is not the fic for you.)
> 
> Additional warnings are in the end notes. This is a rough one, guys. I apologize in advance.

When Quinlan arrives to reinforce the 462nd, he's nearly sent to his knees by the bleeding  _ pain _ and  _ wrongness _ he feels in the Force. 

He knew the campaign was bad, was briefed on the disaster of a situation while still in hyperspace, but  _ this _ — this is something else. This is something more than high casualties and dead Jedi General, something that is somehow  _ worse _ than that. 

The sun is high in the sky when he lands, the planet a peaceful sort of quiet that's only broken by the sound of a bird's croons in the distance as he takes off towards the 462nd's camp. 

"Commander Faie," Quinlan says the moment he tracks the man down, waves off his salute. "What happened here?" 

"Sir," General Faie greets, curt, professional as ever, before diving into the report. And it's a blood-filled account, yes, but it's nothing that he hasn't already heard, nothing that explains the way the Force  _ wails _ in the back of his mind, as haunting as a siren's song, as raw as an open wound. 

"What about the town?" Quinlan asks after the Commander has finished. It's where the report indicated that Master Krell died, but the report had also said that they'd taken the town, a fact he's seen a disturbing lack of evidence supporting. "Is it under our control?" 

"Yes sir," Faie says, with a sharp nod. "We finished clearing it last night." 

Quinlan waits, but Faie doesn't continue. "...Good," Quinlan slowly says once it's clear that the Commander isn't planning on filling the silence. "And the prisoners?" 

"Taken care of, sir," Faie responds. "Dealt with them in the field back there." He jerks his head backwards to a grassy ravine, and Quinlan turns, looks. The sun is glaring down from above, and it's illuminating the ground strangely, giving the grass a glossy, almost red sheen in the light. 

Quinlan stares at it. Hears the way the Force wails, the echoes of the whimpers of— children. He hears the echoes of the whimpers of children. 

Something low in his gut begins to form as an invisible hand seems to clench around his chest, squeezing tight. His next breath is shaky. 

Surely this is a nightmare. Surely this must not be real. Surely— 

"I'm sorry,  _ what _ ?" he makes himself ask, dimly noting that he almost sounds like Obi-Wan. It would be amusing, if this situation was amusing. If amusement was an emotion he was capable of feeling right now. If he was anything but a plethora of horror in human form. 

"General Krell ordered us to take no prisoners," Faie says. General Krell ordered us to take no prisoners, his mind repeats to him, and— 

And Force kriffing hells, there's no deceit in his words in the Force, no indication that he's hiding anything. That he's lying. That he's exaggerated. 

Quinlan— kriff, Quinlan almost feels sick. Nauseous. Woozy with it, the implications of those words more damning than any simple feeling in the Force could be. 

"We followed our orders. Sir." Faie continues, indifferent to his turmoil. Or maybe just uncaring of it. Quinlan doesn't know. Quinlan doesn't know that he  _ wants _ to know. "The bodies have been disposed of." 

Somehow, Quinlan manages to speak. "The people who surrendered?" he hears himself say, voice quiet, his tongue leaden by the horror of it. "Those who were unarmed? Their  _ children _ ?" 

Faie blinks at him. For all that his face is blank, he's radiating an almost child-like confusion in the Force, an uncertainty that makes Quinlan want to scream. A strand of dismay is wrapping around his being, because he doesn't know why Quinlan isn't pleased. 

Not because of the murder. The  _ massacre.  _ No, Faie is uncomfortable because  _ Quinlan isn't pleased _ . 

"Yes. We disposed of them." A pause, then— "He told us to take no prisoners, sir," Faie repeats, seemingly at a loss about what to say. Kriff. Quinlan feels the same way. "So we didn't take prisoners." 

Force.  _ Force _ . The implications of those words chill him to the core. How many innocents were there? How many people unjustly lost their lives? How many— 

_ Kriff _ . Quinlan opens his mouth to say something, but. But he can't seem to form the words. He closes his mouth, thinks it through. Opens it, and tries again. 

Fails again. 

So instead of speaking, Quinlan starts to walk over to the valley. Feels Faie follow a step behind him. Feels the Force's echoes of the massacre increase with every step he takes, sees a glimpse of shiny white clone armor as unarmed beings are herded towards the ravine when he brushes a finger across the ground. 

General Krell ordered us to take no prisoners, his mind reminds him when he straightens back up. General Krell ordered us to take no prisoners. 

It is quiet out. The sun shines. The Force wails. And the grass is tinted red. 

Quinlan reaches the ravine, steals himself. Pulls off a glove. Crouches down to place his bare hand on the blood-stained ground. 

The last thing he hears before he's pulled into the past is the sound of a bird singing, breaking the silence.

**Author's Note:**

> Additional warnings for the massacre of children, civilians, and prisoners of war. There are also implications of past abuse throughout this fic, re. Krell's treatment of clones, and some general fucked up shit morals wise.
> 
> The idea for this fic came from when I listened to the Reveal podcast episode titled _Take No Prisoners_ , which recounts a war crime committed by American soldiers during World War 2, in which about 80 German prisoners of war were massacred by American soldiers, just weeks after around 80 American prisoners of war were massacred by German soldiers. That episode got me thinking about how the clones really don't have the responsibility to disobey unlawful orders, and how they're brought up to be killing machines by people who ALREADY have pretty fucked up morals considering that they're literally assassins/bounty hunters who are training children for war, and how clone troopers who didn't have the Jedi's dedication to preserving life guiding their actions probably ended up doing some pretty fucked up things... and I remembered Krell existed, and then this happened. 
> 
> This fic happens under pretty different circumstances than the massacre in the podcast, but the order from command is the same— they're told to take no prisoners. And people die because of it. 
> 
> ...Yeah. Anyway, feel free to come hit me up on Tumblr at @coruscantguard if you want to yell at me about this one. Or if you want to be nice. I'm cool with that too.
> 
> (And if you're wondering about Faie... well, I think this quote from the show _Violet Evergarden_ sums up pretty well both what he's feeling right now, and how that will change once he finally gets to be something other than a soldier.  
> “You’re going to learn a lot of things, But it might be easier to keep living, if you didn’t learn them, if you didn’t know them. You don’t realize your body is on fire and burning up because of the things you did. You’ll understand one day. And then you’ll realize for the first time that you have many burns.")


End file.
